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Fannie Mae

Latest Headlines

Latest Headlines

Daniel Mudd steps down

Confirming media reports, Daniel Mudd--the former chief of Fannie Mae who now stands accused of fraud by the SEC--has stepped down as CEO of alternatives investments giant Fortress. In a statement for shareholders, he said, "I do not want the uncertainty associated with a leave of abs

SEC charges top Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac execs

Many have bemoaned the fact that law enforcement authorities have charged relatively few executives of firms that helped usher in the financial crisis and recession. Will charges against six top executives of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac--including former CEOs of both--lessen the frustration? Th

Bank of America balks at new Fannie requests

A new dispute has broken out pitting Fannie Mae against Bank of America, suggesting that even when disputes appear to be resolved they can easily be revived as the mortgage malaise continues to dog banks. Bloomberg reports that Bank of America "is disputing Fannie Mae's demand that lenders

Mortgage market prognosis: Little change

For all the angst in the mortgage market since the financial crisis tanked the economy, we have yet to really find any consensus about an all new market structure. The problems of the past were obvious in hindsight. We can point to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and their gross excesses. We can po

Speculation: Bank of America headed to bankruptcy court

The move by Bank of America to move derivatives assets from the Merrill Lynch broker dealer unit to the bank holding company continues to generate controversy and speculation. Christopher Whalen, the co-founder of Institutional Risk Analytics and trenchant critic of the banking industry, has r

Are we near the bottom for bank stocks?

Value investors have been burned before on financial stocks, especially the big commercial bank stocks and the likes of Fannie Mae. It's so tempting to believe that the selling is overdone when they drop so precipitously. But would buying in now be to commit the same mistake that the likes of Bill

A muddled, unsatisfying end to the GSE saga?

So are Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac victims or perpetrators of the one of the great financial frauds in recent memory?  Judging from the spate of regulatory activity, the only conclusion is that they were both. This is not the kind of conclusion that anyone will find wholly satisfying. There

Legal risks mount, GSE conservator to sue big banks

When Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac went belly-up, requiring a massive taxpayer-funded bailout, the outrage was intense. Critics demanded someone be put in jail. The mismanagement in many cases was shocking. But when looking strictly at the GSEs push into non-traditional, much riskier loans, the i

Correlation to end for bank stocks?

That old market bugaboo has returned in force the last month or so, wreaking havoc with bank stocks. Correlation was an unfortunate reality during the financial crisis. No matter how strong your balance sheet, you could not escape this powerful market force. Now we're seeing something of a return

Role of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to survive, but how?

In the battle to formulate a new approach to guaranteeing housing credits, one big issue has been what role, if any, the big GSEs should play. The battle of the pundits has raged, but now the government is on the brink of refining its views and taking a firm position. The Washington Post r